8 del Marzo - Valparaiso, Chile
We spent another day walking around the hilly streets of Valparaiso. Above the bustling shipping port and the downtown area, the houses are haphazardly perched all over these steep hills. The houses range from rusty old shacks made out of corrugated metal and painted in the brightest colors you have ever seen to tattered Victorian-style mansions. The gawdy colors of SF´s homes pale in comparison to these. We spent most of our time in the two artsy cerros (hilly neighborhoods), where there are really funky cafes, amazing museums, and artisan´s shops and homes.When we first got into town this morning, we noticed all these kids walking around with no shoes, no shirts, torn pants, and covered in mud, paint, and stinky food. They were all approaching people and asking for spare change, and nobody seemed to think twice about it. It was a very weird sight, but it got even more strange as we continued through the town and saw literally hundreds of kids in the exact same state of mess. We finally held our breath long enough to ask one of them ¨¿Porque? ¿Que paso?¨, or why in hell are you all dirty and disheveled and walking around this city asking for spare change? Well, we learned that they are all members of the incoming class of the Engineering University that is in Valparaiso, and this is the yearly ritual on the first week of school. They get hazed like this, and then they are sent out to the streets to beg for money. The entire city takes part in this ritual. The cover of the local paper featured a photo of three of them and said something along the lines of ¨The Future of Chile.¨ It was really funny once we were in on the joke. It´s good to see that hazing doesn´t only happen in the military and in fraternities.
We spent the rest of the day walking around the neighborhoods in the cerros (hills), and then took a short boat ride on the bay to see all the ships docked in the port. Valparaiso is a huge shipping port, and there are about 25 enormous ships in the harbor at any given time. We also went back to the same restaurant where we ate the day before up in the hills on a tiny little cobblestone street. We had the menu del dia again, which for $5 has been one of the best meals we`ve eaten on the trip. We savored the 3 course meal, because we are only eating one meal a day in restaurants, and we prepare our own breakfasts and dinners at our hostel. On the menu tonight is pasta with red sauce and veggies, exactly what we ate for dinner last night.
We have noticed many differences between Chile and Argentina already. One of the main differences is that people in Chile are in more of a hurry. Life here is a little more similar to life in the States in this way. In a restaurant in Argentina, getting the bill was a painstaking task. There was no rushing through a meal, which was nice for a change. On the roads we have heard horns honking and people yelling at eachother on the streets, something we never heard anywhere in Argentina. We also noticed that here people in cars will brake for pedestrians, and obey stop signs. In Argentina, cars did not stop for people, ever, and stop signs were merely a suggestion (not sure why they even bothered to put them up). People here also speak more English, and all the grammar school students dress in private school uniforms. The men (and especially the women) dress much more informally or casually here. The cost of living seems to be a bit more expensive here compared to Argentina. The language is different too...Chileans speak much faster. Otherwise, things are quite similar in both countries, especially in the cities, like Mendoza and Buenos Aires.
Two places I would go back to in Valparaiso--
Cafe Vinilo in Cerro Concepcion (the funky, kitschy cafe where we ate lunch twice)
Thomas Somerscales in Cerro Alegre (a very upscale hotel...a cool $95 per night)
posted by The Blaus @ 6:21 PM
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